Category: Tom Baxter

You could almost get the impression, reading Twitter, that so far the Republicans have been more interested in the Democratic presidential debates than the Democrats. That’s about to change, as the nomination process goes into high gear.

If you haven’t done so already, take a minute to compare your last two electricity bills with what you paid in September and October of last year. You’re probably all too aware how hot it’s been, but the financial impact of that may still be a shock.

When U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson let it be known that he planned to introduce one last big bill before his retirement at the end of this year, there was some speculation he might try to break the knot around background checks. That wasn’t the legislation he introduced last week, but his square-one proposal could prove to have more knot-breaking potential than meets the eye.

Calling on those interested in being appointed to fill out Isakson’s U.S. Senate term was an example of the canniness Gov. Brian Kemp has shown on several occasions. Making it “open and transparent” — i.e., doing it all online and posting the resumes as they come in — was a masterstroke.

What does the governor know that the rest of us don’t? That question has floated rather ominously over the Golden Dome since Brian Kemp last month directed agency heads to start planning for a leaner tomorrow.

The idea behind business courts — the idea Georgia voters bought into last year when they approved a statewide business court — is that they provide a way for big, complicated lawsuits involving businesses to be settled in the fairest, most efficient way. That proposition is about to face a stern test, as the Gwinnett business court becomes the venue for the state’s opioid case.

When the history of whatever comes next in Georgia politics gets written some day, the first chapter is likely to dwell on two events: last year’s governor’s race and the fallout from Sen. Johnny Isakson’s resignation. Both are part of a generational shift which may turn out to be as meaningful as the long drift from Democratic to Republican dominance. Or even more so.

What is crazy, after all? People’s ideas about that can differ as much as the songs by Patsy Cline and Gnarls Barkley. That’s what makes it such a difficult subject to approach politically.

On a day when President Trump has addressed the nation to condemn “racism, bigotry and white supremacy,” it might not seem appropriate to begin with Champ Bailey’s Pro Football Hall of Fame induction speech on Saturday. But the former Georgia Bulldog great spoke about that very subject with expertise, as he put it. It’s something, he said, which black men “have more expertise in than any aspect of our lives.”

Imagine a 3D printer that can build a 100-foot-tall rocket, or robots made of polymers and muscle tissue. Somebody already has, and is moving forward on the idea.

Over the past four years, the staff of the Center for Household Financial Stability at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis has produced a series of essays titled “The Demographics of Wealth.” It draws on interviews with more than 40,000 heads of households, conducted over more than a quarter century, to examine how factors like race, age and education affect a family’s financial health. You’re thinking, not exactly a summer beach read. No, but if you want a clear-eyed fix on the economy before the politicians start talking about it again, this is a great place to start.

Google the name of Norman Primus and all you will find is his photograph and his archived 2012 obituary. That’s a shame. Primus spent a good part of his life fighting for our republic, and if we had listened to him we might have avoided the problems which bubbled up in last week’s U.S. Supreme Court decision on partisan gerrymandering.